This will be the newcomer post; a synopsis of the situation. Returning readers please play through

At issue is the power that public servants wield. At issue is stakeholders regaining control over power that is fundamentally their own. At issue is ending the abuse of that power that enables corruption and incompetence in public service.

The goal is to eliminate corruption and incompetence by raising the standard of conduct for public servants. More importantly there will be honest accountability to that standard; accountability even for the most powerful and influential of public servants.

The immediate objective is to establish a precedent. The best place to start is at an Achilles heel. One can’t expect to go directly to the President and demand honest accountability to a meaningful standard of conduct.

There is an elected seven member board of education. They are on the record; flatly refusing to be held accountable; not as role models, not as stewards of the public trust and treasure, and not as public servants. Their position is categorically indefensible.

As individuals and as a board they are influential. And they are lawyered up like you wouldn’t believe. They and their lawyers have a large bore pipeline to taxpayer support of education.

For as long as they can keep this situation secret; they will prevail. At such time as their position becomes widely known; their house of cards will collapse.

The local media refuse to investigate or report upon the issue. Voters have been, and will be denied pertinent and important information.

If the word is to be spread; it will spread by you.

The enabling objective it to get two hundred people to go to the December 6th meeting of the APS Board of Education. There they will stand in support of the principle that public servants are accountable to the public and to a meaningful standard of conduct.

If you cannot attend the meeting, your responsibility is to spread the word. Contact the local newspapers and demand that they investigate and report upon the APS ethics scandal. Demand that they do it in time for voters to make use of the information. The filing date, the last day to stand personally in opposition to the board’s position, is December 19th.

This is the last board meeting before the filing date for candidates for the school board. If on the filing date, the scandal is still secret, those who would have stood in opposition by becoming a candidate will have been denied the opportunity to make that decision them self.

You pick a side when you don’t pick a side.

Pick a side. Cowboy up.

APS Leaders; felony criminal misconduct allegations unresolved

Allegations of felony criminal misconduct, supported by incontrovertible hard evidence, remain unresolved after several years.

If the Leadership of the Albuquerque Public Schools were accountable to the law; there would be either a conviction or an acquittal of the subjects of the allegations. There is none. There is no evidence even of a criminal investigation. There is no evidence that the allegations or the evidence have ever been considered by law enforcement. The Leadership of the APS is not accountable, even to the law.

In nineteen days, three of seven APS board members will be guaranteed an unopposed reelection to the board. The guarantee is granted by the Journal and Tribune who will neither investigate nor report upon the scandal despite their many obvious and inescapable obligations to do so.

The Journal and Tribune are culpable

All standards great and mean are meaningless without accountability. Without accountability, the most respected standard is just so many words; serving no good. It is all about accountability.

The Leaders of the APS maintain the wherewithal to dodge accountability. Whether or not it is used, they have at their immediate disposal the resources to avoid accountability even to the law. Their record proves it.

Like radar detectors, like photo defeating license plate covers, there is no reason to maintain the ability to escape accountability, except to escape accountability; it is ethically indefensible. It is itself unethical.

It is not in the interests of students, teachers, parents, or the community that APS Leaders maintain their immunity. The only interests served are their own; they are not legitimate interests.

They maintain their immunity through stealth. A public discussion of their immunity would lead to its abolition. It is indefensible; were it not, the defense would be manifest.

The responsibility for the fact that their immunity is not part of the political discourse, even through the election of board members and allocation of hundreds of millions of tax dollars, falls squarely upon the shoulders of the Journal and Tribune.

The failure of the Journal and Tribune to expose the APS ethics scandal is a betrayal of any interpretation of a journalist’s code of ethics, and of the public trust.

They, like the APS Leaders whom they protect, cannot be held accountable for their misconduct.

And so, it will continue.

APS misrepresents election results

I have rewritten this post to rectify mistakes and for clarity. I will save the original and will accept responsibility for errors there in.

I picked up a flyer from a stack of flyers on a table in the APS board offices waiting room. The flyer has no publication date and is obviously being currently distributed.

On the flyer is the following statement; “In 2006, voters approved a general obligation bond election to provide capital funding for the district, with 80 percent approval.”

Having just completed a bond issue election in September, I assumed that, that was the election to which the flyer referred. Knowing that the bond issue had not passed by 80%, I looked for the results on the county clerk’s website. I did not recognize an entry labeled APS/TVI, as a bond election. I assumed incorrectly that there had been only one bond issue election in 2006 and so reported. Again, I accept responsibility for my error.

Now to the actual results. In the February election, votes were divided; 23,317 or 79.66% for the bond issue, 5,955 or 20.34% against the bond issue. These are the results to which the flyer refers.

In the September issue election, votes were divided 22,431 or 57.54% for the bond issue, 16,551 or 42.46% against.

In comparing the results, one can see that 886 fewer voters voted for the bond issue despite a 33% greater voter turnout. Votes against the bond issue were 178% greater in September than February. Voting in 2006 overall is not accurately represented by the statement, “In 2006, voters approved a general obligation bond election to provide capital funding for the district, with 80 percent approval.”

It is that dishonesty to which I react. Measured against a “legal” standard APS told the truth. Measured against an “ethical” standard, they misrepresented the truth.

If you want to be able to take statements from APS Leaders at face value; then they will have to be held accountable to a higher standard of conduct; an ethical standard; like students.

If not, then no matter what they represent as the truth, you will have to wonder if it is the “legal” truth or the “ethical” truth.

There is a difference.

APS Leadership dodges accountability; as a matter of course.

The Leadership of the APS has a statewide reputation for dodging accountability. This fact is routinely acknowledged every time taxpayers are asked to support education with new taxes. Governor Richardson referred in an op-ed piece before the Sepember bond issue, to a persuasive argument that these eight individuals have “a long history of dodging accountability when it comes to managing (their) finances and modernizing schools.” Voters are asked to think of the students and their needs; and not to think about their misgivings about the men and women whom they must trust with their money.


APS Leaders would like to continue to dodge accountability for their past.

Before the school tax vote next February 6th, voters will be asked to think about the maintenance needs of aging and dilapidated school houses. Again voters will be asked not to hold children accountable for the sins of APS Administrators and Board Members.

And for at least the third election in a row, the Leadership of the Albuquerque Public Schools will dodge accountability for the administrative corruption and incompetence that wastes so many tax dollars. It will not be a ballot issue, it will not even be discussed.

For ten board meetings in a row, APS Leaders have been asked to hold themselves honestly accountable to a meaningful standard of conduct. Their response is to stonewall. They just ignore the question. And then the broadcast version of the school board meeting is deliberately edited to remove their response; to misrepresent the truth; to avoid accountability.

The issue of the lack of accountability in the APS, should be part of the political discourse. It should effect decisions around the December 19th Filing Day for School Board candidates.

It will not. It will not because APS, Modrall, the Journal, and the Tribune are agreed that it will not be made public.

In whose interests?

There is nothing you can do about it

If you have to ask for someone’s permission to hold them accountable; they are not accountable.

If they create and maintain the ability to dodge accountability at will; they are not accountable.

Accountability is fatal to corruption and incompetence. Corruption and incompetence exist only because honest accountability does not. In the absence of accountability the public is protected only by the trustworthiness of public servants. When the trust is being betrayed; we are compelled to recognize that trust is a poor substitute for honest accountability.

It is not power that corrupts. It is the lack of accountability for the abuse of power that corrupts; absolutely.

APS Leadership has the wherewithal to dodge accountability. They can act against the public interest; and there’s nothing you can do about it.

Albuquerqueans watch APS board meetings in person or on TV. The broadcast version of the record has been repeatedly falsified. They have deliberately and methodically misrepresented the truth. APS’ Rigo Chavez says that it isn’t dishonest to deliberately misrepresent the truth to the community because, it isn’t the “official” record.

And there’s nothing you can do about it.

Except go to the next board meeting and defend the principle that public servants are honestly accountable to the public; and to a meaningful standard of conduct.

The goal

As an essential term of public service, public servants will be honestly accountable to a meaningful standard of conduct. The terms of public in-servitude are the sole prerogative of the public, and not of the public servant.

The immediate objective is to compel the Leadership of the Albuquerque Public Schools to recognize the terms of their public service; that they will hold themselves accountable to a standard of conduct that protects the public interest.

This objective will be reached in one way. A number of people will assemble at a board meeting and present their demand to the Leadership of the Albuquerque Public Schools. If the number of people is large enough, the community will regain control over their power. Corruption and incompetence in the APS will end.

If the number of people is too small, when the question is asked;

As public servants, as stewards of public funds, and as the senior role models for employees and students; will you hold yourself honestly accountable to a meaningful standard of conduct?

They will ignore the question.

And they will ignore their obligations as public servants, stewards of the public trust and treasure, and as role models for 98,000 of our sons and daughters.

George Washington and the cherry tree; new development

If you asked a Leader of the APS, did you chop down the cherry tree? If they answered they would say, through their lawyers, “Prove it.”

And then they would use a whole bunch of money to keep you from doing that. The money comes from people who think that their taxes are being spent in the best interests of children.

APS Leaders are spending money to protect their own interests. They’re doing it in diametric opposition to the interests of children.

Taxpayer trust is being betrayed.

But just you try to hold them accountable for it.

Open letter to Veronica Garcia, NM Secretary of Education

Re: IPR o6-220, 06-222, 06-223

I call your attention to complaints filed with the Educator Ethics Bureau. The complaints have been denied a principled resolution.

The scandal unfolds under your letterhead. I am offering you an opportunity to involve yourself appropriately.

The New Mexico Educator Ethics Bureau has ended its investigation of an allegation of ethics violations by APS Superintendent Elizabeth Everitt.

The investigation took three months and involved no investigation what so ever. There is no record that a single question was asked of anyone, ever.

Elizabeth Everitt was not even asked apparently, if the allegations were true or not.

Ms. Everitt never had to say; "Yes, it is true that I refuse to be held accountable to any meaningful standard of conduct. And in so doing, I violated not only the standard of the code of ethics for educators, but of any recognized, accepted, and respected code of ethics."

Nor did she have to say "No, the allegations are not true. My record is proof that by my personal example I have modeled honest accountability to a meaningful standard of conduct."

She told neither the truth nor a lie, and yet she was found innocent. Actually they didn’t use the word innocent, that would have been a lie, and on the record. So they said that I had not proved guilt.

I had offered that a code of ethics that requires accountability by personal example; is violated when a person refuses to be held accountable for their personal example.

Apparently that was not proof enough.
And then the custodian of public records helped to cover it all up.
Accountability has been dodged, leaving no trail at all.

Nobody said they weren’t good at it.

Stonewall; to refuse to cooperate with somebody by avoiding answering questions or providing information.

Stonewalling is what you have to do when a lie can no longer protect you from the truth.

Their record is one of dodging accountability. They can’t lie and say that they are accountable for their conduct.

They can’t tell the truth because the truth is that they really are not accountable to any meaningful standard of conduct.

Clearly, that is the way that they want things to remain.

So when you ask them if they are willing to be held honestly accountable to a meaningful standard of conduct; they have to stonewall.

Their broadcast record of board meetings shows that, in the ten times that they have refused to answer the question,not one board member nor the superintendent looks into the eyes of their constituents as they dodge accountability. Not once.

Their answer is no, deal with it.

Suppose that instead of stonewalling, the Leadership of the Albuquerque Public Schools actually answered the question. What if when asked, in your public service, will you hold yourself honestly accountable to a meaningful standard of conduct; they said “no”

What if they said, “No; we won’t be held accountable to ANY standard of conduct. Deal with it.”

What would you do?

You need to think about that, because that’s what happened.

Unless you think stonewalling adequately answers the question.

Any answer except yes, is no.

Their answer is no; deal with it.

Talk about an elephant in the room

Honest accountability to a meaningful standard of conduct.

Nobody wants to talk about it; except me of course.

I think that public servants, within their public service, should be honestly accountable to a meaningful standard of conduct.

It doesn’t help to try to read anything into “honest accountability” and “meaningful standard”. They mean exactly what you think they mean.

I can understand why people who don’t want to be held accountable; don’t want to talk about accountability.

I cannot understand why people who think that public servants should be honestly accountable to a meaningful standard of conduct; don’t want to talk about it.

In less than a month there will be a filing date for candidates for the Albuquerque Public Schools Board of Education. After that date it will no longer be possible to be a candidate. If the issues are not discussed before the filing date, then the issues cannot compel someone to become a candidate based on the issues. A healthy election depends on everyone knowing the truth while there is still time to do something about it.

I want to make honest accountability to a meaningful standard of conduct an issue in the school board election.

I want the terms of public in-servitude to be an issue in the board election.

Despite the fact that I am a candidate, I cannot compel a discussion of relevant issues.

There are those who do not want to discuss these issues. Their personal interests are at stake. No one will argue that honest accountability would not be good for students, and teachers, and parents, and the community. Nor will they argue that any public interest is being served by their refusal to be held honestly accountable for their conduct.

Nor will they argue.

There is only one defense of an indefensible position, it must be hidden; it must be kept secret.

Why are the Albuquerque Journal and Tribune helping to prevent the meaningful involvement of stakeholders?

You tell me. I could suggest a lot of cynical possibilities. The point is I can’t think of a single ethical possibility. Not one. The Journal and Trib are up to their eyeballs in a cover up of an ethics scandal in the leadership of the APS. So is most of the rest of the local media.

If there isn’t a scandal, why won’t someone say “There is no ethics scandal in the Leadership of the Albuquerque Public Schools.”?

No APS leader has said it. Pete Domenici won’t say it. Nor Marty Chavez, nor any member of the City Council, nor of the Chamber of Commerce, nor the Character Counts Leadership Council, nor the teachers union, nor an editor of the Journal or Tribune, nor a news director of KOAT, KOB, or KRQE.

Nobody will stand up and say that there isn’t a scandal; because it would be a lie. No one wants to be the one to tell this lie on the record. Nobody will tell the truth. All that’s left is to stonewall; which is precisely what they are doing. They have no choice but to pretend that there’s not an elephant in the room.

The APS senior administration, the board, Modrall, and the Media do not want to talk about this. I can understand why.

Those who want to end corruption and incompetence in public service; apparently don’t want to talk about it either. That; I don’t understand.

There’s an elephant in public service. Talk about it.

They say there’s no stopping an idea whose time has come.

I offer an idea whose time has come.

As a fundamental term of their in-servitude; Public Servants will hold themselves honestly accountable to a meaningful standard of conduct.

Whether or not this is an idea whose time has come will be manifest in the sacrifice that people are willing to make to defend the principle.

If no one wants to do anything; then the idea’s time is not come.

There’s only one way to find out.

There is a small group of people, seven board members and one superintendent, who run the seventeenth largest school district in the country.

They are refusing to hold themselves honestly accountable to a meaningful standard of conduct. Their position is indefensible; their only hope is to keep it hidden.

A few hundred people can make a difference.

All we have to do to win is to spread the word widely enough to motivate a few hundred people to stand up at a board meeting or email a reporter.

Everybody has their own agenda. I submit that my agenda moves your agenda. What legitimate agenda is not advanced by public service honestly accountability to a meaningful standard of conduct?

Honest accountability anywhere is honest accountability everywhere. It just needs to get started somewhere. There will be no better circumstance, no better time, and no better place to draw a line in the sand and defend it.

A precedent must be set. This is the place to set it. It’s time to kick the ball on to the field.

Where ever you live, you are a stakeholder. There is an opportunity to make a real difference, and all you have to do is help to spread the word.

All we need is people.

Soon.

Secret board election

Three school board seats are up for grabs in February.

One of the editors told me that they would start paying attention to candidates after filing day. Filing day is I believe December 19th.

A great disservice is done by waiting until after filing day. What it means is that political discourse will not take place before filing day. Perhaps when stakeholders find out that Leonard DeLayo, Miguel Acosta, and Robert Lucero are among board members who refuse to hold themselves honestly accountable to a meaningful standard of conduct; someone might be motivated to run against them; somebody who is willing to hold themself honestly accountable to a meaningful standard of conduct.

And if the APS Leadership, Modrall, the Journal and the Tribune; don't want to talk about this now; what makes you think they will talk about it ever? The longer they wait the worse it looks. And the more it needs to stay secret.

Maybe this will be the first stealth election. Talk about voter fraud.

Open letter to every elected public servant in Albuquerque.

Are you willing to be held honestly accountable to a meaningful standard of conduct?

If you are, visit my blog and post your name.

In God we trust; everyone else will be asked for proof.

Who's paying the lawyers?

If a public servant breaks the law while abusing her power, should the public pay for the attorney who saves her from accountability for that abuse?

If so, is it still OK if the money goes to her husband’s law firm? It is a large amount of money; an amount so indefensible that it must be kept secret; even in response to a public records request.

May the public expect that their taxes be spent in a manner that supports the public interest?

If public assets are spent to advance a personal agenda at the expense of the public interest; the law has been broken. Hasn’t it?

Which brings us back the fact that these people cannot be held accountable to any meaningful standard of conduct. They cannot be held accountable even to the lowest standard of acceptable conduct; the law.

Tax payers fund cover up of ethics scandal

The New Mexico Public Education Department may be accumulating fines of up to $300 per day. They have failed to surrender public records by the deadline set by the law.

According to the law, the public agency responsible for the failure to surrender the records will pay the fine out of agency funds. Those funds are tax funds. Likely they are the very dollars that taxpayers contributed in order to provide the best education for their children.

As are the funds enriching the lawyers of Modrall. Public money is being spent to cover up the APS ethics scandal as well.

Taxpayers are paying for protection for public servants who will not hold themselves honestly accountable to a meaningful standard of conduct.

That’s wrong, right?

If I am missing something here; tell me. Please.

The terms of public service

I am not the person to list or defend them all. I submit two.

The first and most fundamental term is; public servants must hold themselves honestly accountable to a meaningful standard of conduct.

Flowing from the first; public servants must answer legitimate questions about their public service.

The members of the Albuquerque Public Schools are public servants. Whatever else, whoever else they are; they are public servants.

They have no choice but to answer the question; or resign.

Paula Maes, Robert Lucero, Miguel Acosta, Berna Facio, Mary Lee Martin, Gordon Rowe, Leonard DeLayo, and Elizabeth Everitt;

As public servants, as stewards of the public trust and treasure, and as role models for 98,000 of our sons and daughters;
Will you hold yourself honestly accountable to a meaningful standard of conduct?

Any answer except yes; is no.

Stakeholders have dues. At the very least your dues include standing up for what you believe in. You are at a fork in the road; you can do something or you can do nothing.

You can email the Journal and Tribune and tell them that you have a right to the truth far enough in advance of the filing deadline to make a difference.

You can copy this appeal and post it where other people will read it. You can ask them to read it.

You can post it on your blog.

You could go to the next board meeting and be counted among stakeholders demanding an answer to the question.

Or you could do nothing.

If I am missing something here; tell me. Please.

APS Superintendent Everitt apparently enjoys the support of the Educator Ethics Bureau

Within the New Mexico Public Education Department lies the Educator Ethics Bureau.

If you file a complaint alleging ethical misconduct by an educator, they will investigate the complaint and assign consequences. They have the authority to revoke educational licensure.

All of the APS Administrators who refuse to hold themselves honestly accountable to a meaningful standard of conduct; do so in violation of any justifiable code of ethics. If for no other reason, they fall short of the standards of the Code of Ethics for the Education Profession. The standard requires that they teach ethics by personal example. People who choose not be held accountable to a standard cannot also maintain that they are modeling accountability to a standard.

Almost two years ago, a complaint regarding this ethical misconduct was filed with the Educator Ethics Bureau against APS Superintendent Elizabeth Everitt.

I called recently to check on the progress. I was told that because the case was still open, I am denied any information about the complaint.

I found it a little hard to believe that it would take almost two years to investigate a simple case. Also I doubted that just because they claimed to be investigating, that they could claim any exception to public records law. I filed a request for public records with the NMPED. I asked for my records, any record that substantiates their allegation that they enjoy exception to the law, and a copy of their “Rules”. It is ironic that you have to file a public records request in order to see the "Rules"; but hey, it’s New Mexico.

The deadline for the surrender of the public records has passed.

I don’t know how my complaint was resolved, they won’t show me the rules, and they won’t show me the rule that excepts them from having to show me the findings or the "Rules".

An agency of the state government has failed to comply with the requirements of the New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act.

There is nothing that I can do about it. Theoretically the attorney general and the district attorney are at my disposal in the prosecution of my suit to obtain public records. In truth,they actually do have better things to do. They aren’t going to help. I’ve been there.

The AG’s website suggests, “hey, just sue ‘em yourself". So there you are in District Court standing opposite two Modrall lawyers. Imagine a one legged man in an ass kicking contest. It wasn't pretty. You don't get the records, ever. They have lots of time and lots of money. Tax payers give it to them in order to provide the best educational opportunity for their sons and daughters.

Apparently Superintendent Everitt is not accountable even to the law. The state agency that is charged with holding her accountable won’t, and they can’t be held accountable either.

Constituents have a right to know, before the election, before the filing date, that these folks can not be held honestly accountable to a meaningful standard of conduct. That they are not accountable even to the law.

The records will not be surrendered until such time as they no longer represent a problem to eight men and women and their lawyers.

Did I mention that taxpayers are paying for the lawyers?

“…fear of retribution and retaliation is part of APS culture…”

If you know nothing, you know that, that is a sign of organizational ill health.

Culture; “the sum total of ways of living built up by a group of human beings and transmitted from one generation to another”.

I did not choose the word culture, the Council of Great City Schools did.

One generation after another of APS administrators and board members who wield our power, use it to create fear of retribution and retaliation against anyone who questions their decisions or actions.

It’s not the way to run a school district.